We walked to a new park by the house....

Walking in the sand is hard work!
My arm's help me balance!
Look at this dinosaur!! I can make it "go"!
Spotting out the perfect swing...

I
LOVE
SWINGS!!!
Our bodyguards....
Watching the perimeter....

Tyler Summer Do

We just got home from some errands. We took the girls with us as I had to stop at Petsmart. The last time I took either or both to Petsmart on my own was back with Tyler was an itty bitty infant...and it was such a pain that I hadn't attempted it again. I had a temporary memory loss though and loaded them up to take me with them. It turns out that Carlie (who is normally a MAJOR pain because she barks a lot) was an angel and casually walked by the side of the cart, sat to be petted by strangers, and whimpered when we got to the doggie play area (part of the pet hotel where there is a see-through glass where customers can look in on the dogs. Talk about totally shocking me. Ellie did well too....she pretty much pulled the cart and us through the store (she is NOT good on a leash despite all of our training), but finally calmed down. We took our sweet time because everyone was doing so well. Everyone had a great time watching the dogs play in the play area, and then looking at all of the birds. :)

Since we were by Tyler's haircutters, I stopped in to get him cleaned up. He had a great time despite the other little boy there who was screaming at the top of his lungs. Everyone was surprised at how calmly he just sat there and watched the other boy scream "All done" at the top of his lungs. I was too becuase I thought that he might get scared and then not sit still....but he did and now has a nice summer cut (hoping that this lures summer to come to Minneapolis). ;)

I took these pictures but it is after lunch and he is wiped out and ready for a nap (if you can't tell). He was just staring at the Ellie (who was outside trying to hunt out a nest of rabbits that are beneath our shed) and I had a hard time getting his hand away from his mouth (from his behavior today it appears that we are about to begin another round of teething). We are just coming off a BAD week with some upper molars coming in, but now his hand is on the lower left hand side of his mouth (at least it has been all morning). Sigh. I just feel so badly for him. This has been a lot of teeth in a short amount of time.

Practice Makes Pefect....

We have been giving Tyler a spoon or fork at meals lately so that he can practice using them. Last night was no exception. He is getting pretty good at feeding himself with utensils, and even managed to feed himself an entire bowl of spaghetti on his own, much to our surpise. It was a pretty messy ordeal, and so as first time parents, we felt the need to snap a few pictures. And of course, Carlie was not far away and always keeping an eye on Tyler's highchair for any stray droppings. ;)

Tyler and Ellie

Well...Tyler is still working back into a sleep routine. We put him to bed last night at 8 after barely napping yesterday, and he went to bed without a peep. We were pretty pleased and were hopeful that it meant that our sleeping son would be back. Needless to say, we were shocked when he awoke screaming around 4:30 this morning. He has napped a little throughout the day today, but not a lot. Hopefully, he will sleep better tonight. We are still at a loss. He really doesn't seem sick, and he does have new teeth coming in...and the nurse seemed to think that he is just teething. So, unless anything changes, I am assuming that he is just teething, not sick, and keep my fingers crossed that he isn't becoming an early bird (I don't think that there is enough coffee in the world to make me a morning person). ;)

It has been a super rainy few days and with the little sleep going on in our household, everyone (but poor Adam who actually has to get up and leave) has been lounging around the house. Carlie has been enjoying watching the rain, while Ellie has become Tyler's buddy. It seems that she enjoys playing with cars and trains as much as him. I finally got a few pictures of them "playing" (i.e. Ellie laying somewhere and Tyler bringing her things, setting them by her until he has enough around her, and then he takes them away....only to bring back more). Ellie just lays there and sniffs everything when it is placed around her and seems to just enjoy the attention.

Best buddies....

Driving the train to Ellie...

Ellie ready for a nap....

Showing off her tongue....

Showing me his car...


And his train....



And mad at me for not letting him play with the camera.....needless to say....two seconds later....he was back to playing with Ellie. ;)

The look of a boy who does not sleep....

Tyler is a sleeper. I think that everyone knows that. We consider ourselves very, very lucky. This is why a sleepless night is blogworthy. Tyler refused to nap yesterday. He woke up early in the day, and when it came time for naptime...he didn't nap. He played in his crib for two hours. He only had a blanket in there, but I guess that that was exciting enough. So after two hours of him not napping, I got him back up and knew that it would be okay because he would sleep well at night.

Yeah, right! He went to bed at eight, but woke up at two and didn't go back to sleep until nine this morning! He kept everyone up, and it was so out of the ordinary for him, that I had to post a picture of him (today at noon). He finally went down for almost an hour around nine this morning, but that was it. He just wanted to be held and rocked. No milk. No food. Wasn't wet. Just wanted rocked. And even if we got him to fall asleep, the minute his head would hit the crib, he was awake and hysterical (not his normal crying) again.

I am hoping for at least a mini-nap later in the day because I look a lot worse than he does (I'd post a picture of me, but I would scare everyone off and I know that Tyler likes people to read his blog), and I can't imagine what Adam is feeling like since he had to go into work and he spent the entire evening last night planting a tree (pictures to come). Even Ellie and Carlie are still in bed (they only came out for breakfast and a quick sniff outside).

Our guess is that his upper molars that are working there way in are bothering him, and then we are all battling a cold/cough...with Tyler having a pretty decent cough (hence why he probably doesn't want to sleep by himself...and only wants to be held).

Just wanted to share what we are up to....

What a nice day.

This morning Tyler, Carlie, Ellie, and I headed out a nice LONG walk and ended up at the park. The weather is gorgeous outside and even though I am fighting a cold, I thought that an outing would be good for us all.

Tyler walked the entire baseball field again all by himself on our way to the park. I am just amazed at how far his little legs can carry him. And the girls did not mind going slowly because it gave them lots of time to sniff the outfield. :)

This time, the swing was a big hit at the park...but it was still the slide that got the most giggles. The girls enjoyed the walk as well. Their noses were plastered to the ground, the entire time and were panting up a storm by the time we got to the park (obviously....they have become winter dogs as the heat proved a little too much for them). :) They have been asleep since we got home and even Tyler is taking a nap (something he has been fighting us on lately).

I played around with the continuous shoot feature on the camera, and thought that I would put together a little slideshow after posting a few pictures. The slideshow is nothing great. I just wanted to use a song that has been in my head all day, and show some of the 60 pictures I took in no time at all with that feature! Needless to say, I should probably delete a few. :)















Slideshow

At the slides.......last May

Almost a year ago......look at that spikey hair....

A trip to the park.

Today was a windy day. Reminded me of Oklahoma wind. It was THAT windy. Tyler and I went out this morning to his play class and I decided then that even though the temperature outside was gorgeous, we weren't going outside because of the wind.

It wasn't until the end of the day when Tyler was chasing the dogs, the house was a mess, and I didn't want to clean it up that we decided to go to the park without the dogs. Usually, when we are out and about, we take the dogs, but I just didn't want to mess with it. After all, it was already super windy. So I pulled out some spring clothes for Tyler and I and we headed out. I brought the camera and thought that I would take pictures. Of course the battery died during the swings.

Tyler did NOT like the swing. I got one giggle and then all he kept saying was "all done" over and over until we were done. I wasn't sure what else he could do but it turns out that he LOVES slides. There were three at the park, and his favorite was a little one. He got to the point where he would slide down on his belly by himself, giggle when he got to the bottom, and then say "nore, nore" (how he pronouces "more") as he tried to climb up the slide by himself. We did this over and over and over, until I was tired. Tyler was still raring to go, so I had him walk from the park, across a soccer field, and then across a baseball field to get to a point where it wasn't grass and he could ride home. He walked the whole way (with just a few falls)! He was sooooo tired when we finally got back home that he ate an early dinner and went to be before 7pm without a peep. I guess with a day of play class, chasing the dogs (thank goodness the dogs are so good with him) around the living room, and the park we had a big day. :)

Here are a few pictures.

First moment outside (remember...he hasn't been in grass very much...so this is all new and I think that he is still trying to decide if he likes it).

A peek-a-boo moment.

And here he is....

After a few minutes in the yard and deciding that we could brave the wind to the park, we put on our sunglasses and hat, and headed off to the park. (And yes...believe it or not....he leaves his sunglasses on. Amazing, huh?) We ran into some neighbors and some dogs, so Tyler was really having a good time. And of course he pointed out EVERY car he saw, whether it was moving or parked.

Standing in a tunnel.

A few pictures where he briefly enjoyed swinging.

One more picture before the camera battery ran out.

New Video of Tyler

Video